Calvin Harris Turns London’s Roundhouse Into A Sweaty Rave For Apple Music Festival

Calvin Harris takes to the stage at London’s Roundhouse on the same day new single ‘My Way’ becomes his 21st UK Top Ten hit. The Dumfries-born DJ drops ‘My Way’, which sees him neatly incorporate 2016’s tropical house trend into his usual thumping EDM sound, right at the end of an impressive 75-minute set. Before that, the 32-year-old shows time and time again why he’s become one of our most reliable hit-makers.

Harris performs his Apple Music Festival set, only his third UK date of the year, from a dramatic raised triangular platform that looks a bit like a DJing spaceship. Eye-popping graphics flash up on video screens on its front-facing panels, as well as on a huge video screen behind him, which makes his show a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. “London, it’s Friday night, how are you?” Harris hollers in between blasts of pyro that feel so hot they could almost singe your eyebrows. This definitely isn’t a performance for the faint of heart.

What makes it, of course, is the irresistible onslaught of hits that Harris has at his disposal. His Florence Welch collaboration ‘Sweet Nothing’ opens proceedings, followed by a steady succession of club bangers you’ll almost certainly have danced to at some point in the last five years. Among the highlights: the blippy, Kelis-led ‘Bounce’, his emotive Ellie Goulding collaboration ‘I Need Your Love’, and a jubilant ‘Feels So Close’ which has Harris clapping his hands over his head triumphantly. When he drops his pair of Rihanna team-ups, 2011’s era-defining ‘We Found Love’ and this summer’s irresistibly catchy ‘This Is What You Came For’, the crowd respond with some of the biggest cheers of the night. Yet his set, packed tighter than a businessman’s carry-on suitcase, hardly has any lulls at all.

He ends with the rousing ‘My Way’ as an explosion of ticker-tape caps off a set filled with massive drops and euphoric highs. At a time when London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan is hiring a Night Czar to improve the capital’s clubbing and live music scene, Calvin Harris’s set shows the power of coming together to dance, have a laugh and wave your hands in the air without caring what anyone thinks.